Today I am feeling pensive.
An early morning flight to Provence can do that to you.
Coincidentally a fellow blogger, Helen asked what prompted a move to France.
She has tweaked some deep emotions.
Helen related the question to music, a note that could be associated with an up-and-change-your-life-moment.
A note or a favourite song was not what prompted our move, but rather falling in love.
We simply fell in love with an abandoned fruit farm in the heart of Provence.
We are Australians through and through and had never contemplated living anywhere but our native Sydney.
Looking back fifteen years later, sitting in the room that I could only dream of at that time, I can honestly say that one single moment changed my life.
Falling in love with all things French came easily to me.
The moment when it altered our lives is indelibly etched in my memory.
The moment I saw the avenue of plane trees, the views towards the mountains and the promise of a farmhouse I knew. It was meant to be.
I felt as if I had come home and that this was something that I was prepared to take risks for, to evolve everything for.
We did and the rest is history.
Looking back is such a luxury and hindsight a marvellous invention.
Do I see the past with rose coloured glasses? Yes I do in large.
There were moments that I prefer to forget, great frustrations and difficulties that made me reconsider everything. Moving from one side of the world to another, leaving friends and family is not for the faint hearted.
Would I do it differently? No, never. Would it have been easier to stay put? Yes, most surely.
Our lives have been a roller coaster of change and un-certainty but also the last fifteen years have been very exciting.
Falling in love and making a home in Provence has lead to many unforseen changes. Like a game of chess, one move and the outcome can be irrevocably changed.
I would never have believed that:
My children would be educated in Engand and live and work in London and that I would write about our story and create this blog.
That this website would morph and change over the years and become a place that I spend nearly all my waking time.
That Le Petit Bijou would be more than a dream.
That I would spend half the year in London and come to adore that city and call it home as much as I do Sydney or Provence.
That sometimes, I would even dream in French.
One single moment, one emotional response and look what happened… xv
